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CONGRESSMANS COLOMBIA VISIT: EYE-OPENING

Colombia, a country dealing with civil strife and drug cartels, needs
a helping hand, according to U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, but not in
the way the U.S. government provides aid.

"Plan Colombia" involves sending U.S. troops to assist the military
and money to fight drugs in the South American country, but Mr.
McGovern, D-Worcester, said Colombia's problems are not that easy to
solve.

Spraying coca plants to kill them is dangerous, he said, because the
chemicals used find their way into well water, food crops and rain
forests. And while cocaine is derived from the dried leaves of coca
plants, he said money used in the spraying operation could better be
spent reducing drug use in the United States.

"The problem is our insatiable demand," Mr. McGovern told a group of
about 30 students, faculty and visitors at Worcester State College
yesterday during a talk on human rights issues in Latin America.

The congressman traveled to Colombia earlier this year to get a sense
of military, political and human rights issues in the community of
Arauca and elsewhere. This was his third trip to Colombia.

There are more than 400 U.S. troops providing assistance in the
country, a testament to this country's desire to focus on military aid
during the past two decades. Colombia is asking for more military aid,
he said, but the situation is more complicated than good vs. evil.

Widespread corruption permeates all levels of government, including
high-ranking officials involved in the drug trade.

Dramatic evidence of the extent of suffering among poor people was all
around him during the visit. Mr. McGovern said he saw children who had
orange-tinged hair, a sign of starvation.

In a trip to a school outside the Colombian capital of Bogota, the
congressman witnessed makeshift classes crowded with hundreds of
children. The youngsters were fed a meal while there - the price for
the food was to attend classes.

"Parent after parent said to me, "Thank the people of the United
States for doing something for me,'" he said.

Funding cuts made by the Bush administration put the school meal
program in jeopardy, he said, although other funding sources have
stepped forward to keep it going.

Parents also told him of boys from 11 to 13 years old who are
recruited into guerrilla organizations such as FARC, Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, the largest rebel movement intent on
overthrowing the government. FARC promises the boys a meal every day
if they serve.

America's foreign policy in Latin America and around the world focuses
on fighting terrorism, he said, but if this country were known for
combating hunger and promoting universal education it would be
difficult for terrorists to recruit people in poverty.

"So much of what the war is about is social inequities and social
injustices," he said. "The United States was sucked into this little
by little. The more we are involved, the more we are targets."

Mr. McGovern is also a proponent of dropping the trade embargo against
Cuba, calling the policy "just dumb."

The embargo has been in place four decades in an effort to topple
dictator Fidel Castro and promote human rights. Yet, Castro is still
there and when things do not work out he blames U.S. policy.

Mr. McGovern said the economic embargo and travel restrictions should
be lifted, noting that American citizens can be fined if they travel
to Cuba without proper permission.

Universities and colleges that had licenses to travel to Cuba find
permits have been revoked or restricted. "Something's wrong with

that," he said. "Freedom to travel is something all of us should have."

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The Land Used to Cultivate Coca in Colombia Dropped 21 Percent In
2003, a State Department Report Says.

BOGOTA - The amount of Colombian land used to cultivate coca dropped
another 21 percent last year, a figure U.S. officials call "stunning."

But the dramatic decline in the plant from which cocaine is made had
no impact where it counts most: on the streets of America.

The State Department annual report on coca cultivation, issued Monday,
showed there were some 280,542 acres of coca plants through 2003, down
from 356,791 the year before.

Including other coca-producing nations like Bolivia and Peru, the
decline was 15 percent, according to the Department's Bureau of
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

The latest Colombian figures show that in this country alone the coca
acreage dropped by a third since 2001, after Washington had begun
delivering some $2 billion in counter narcotics aid as part of Plan
Colombia.

"A big decline a second year in a row is excellent news," said Deborah
McCarthy, the bureau's deputy assistant secretary for narcotics. "The
squeeze is being put on."

The latest crop figures were announced as the Bush administration
works on a proposal to double the legal limit of military personnel
and contractors permitted to work in Colombia.

Congress capped the number of American personnel that can be in
Colombia at any given time at 400 military and 400 contractors, but
Bush wants it raised to 800 military and 600 contractors, a State
Department official confirmed. Among other duties, they train
Colombian soldiers and police and run the program that uses crop
dusters to spray herbicides on coca fields.

Critics warn that raising the cap would be further proof of
Washington's increasingly murky role in Colombia's drug-fueled civil
war. Plan Colombia, some argue, has not shown progress.

"If a product becomes scarce, the price goes up," said Adam Isacson,
an analyst at the Washington-based Center for International Policy.
"Stable prices shows cocaine is as plentiful as ever."

Isacson argues that because the price, purity and availability ofcocaine on U.S. streets have not wavered, traffickers are winning thedrug war.

"It's been stable since the mid '90s. How can that be?" He said in a
telephone interview. "Maybe the satellite pictures are not getting the
new crops? Are growers going deeper into the Amazon region where we
aren't looking? Are they using smaller plots? Growing in the shade?
Getting higher yields?"

McCarthy said the challenge is to hit the Colombian drug trade at all
levels, such as financing and exports, which should soon translate
into lower purity.

Credit for the strides in drug eradication has been largely given to
President Alvaro Uribe, who enthusiastically endorsed American
fumigation programs despite protests from farmers and
environmentalists. Uribe is in Washington this week meeting at the
White House today.

Sandro Calvani, head of the U.N. Drug Control Program here, said the
steady declines in cultivation prove that the alternative development
programs offered to peasants to abandon coca do work.

"Narco-traffickers are going to defend this as much as they can," he
said. "But this shows it's possible to reach out to people and get
them to grow alternative crops.